I<3 Twilight Princess!!
Post Via amazon in Wii Games ReviewThe Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Ever since Ocarina of Time, I've been anticipating a cooler, more realistic Zelda (although Ocarina was just perfection embodied anyway). At last, at last - here is Twilight Princess. More realistic? Oh, yeah! Link has some butt-kicking sword moves and additional sword skills he can learn. Also, there are some very epic battles (Lord of the Rings-style). I am so happy that Link can use his sword while riding his horse now. Playing as a wolf is fun, too, even though toward the beginning I wasn't so into it.
Besides OoT and Twilight Princess, I've completed Link's Awakening, Majora's Mask, and Wind Waker. Compared to the other Zeldas, I would say that Twilight Princess is lacking music-wise. Often, the soundtrack fades out, leaving you to listen just to the rain falling (which is kinda nice) or the wind. Twilight Princess's soundtrack borrows heavily from older Zeldas and has many references to them, especially OoT. Unfortunately, not many of the songs are as catchy, although the one played in Malo Mart and Midna's Desperate Hour are really good in their own ways. I really wish the composer had used OoT's Gerudo Valley song, which was really exotic and fun.
A lot of older Zelda weapons show up - of course, there's the bow and arrows, the slingshot, a kind of boomerang... However, there's some new, weird weapons that I would never have expected to be in the game, or new uses of the weapons. To avoid giving away too much, I'll just explain the Gale Boomerang, which you get early on. Instead of just wacking things, the boomerang creates a whirlwind around them. It can retrieve things, clear away leaves, turn propellers... Also, it will go to targets in the order you targeted them with. Comes in handy even in the last part of the game. Plenty of other weapons are useful in a variety of different, creative ways.
Story-wise, Twilight Princess is not really about Link, in my opinion - although, of course, he's the main character. After the game was over, it seemed to me that the game was more about Midna, the little goblin-like girl who's with Link for a good deal of the game. She was one of my favorite characters since she had spunk and humor. Anyway, the story is much more complex than I would have expected since it deals with two worlds, the world of light and the world of shadows. Link seems to have closer relationships with other characters than he did in other games - but of course, he never actually SAYS anything. One of the things I would like to see in a Zelda game is more interactive character relationships (although that's rather RPG-ish, isn't it?).
What broke my heart, though, was that Link is no longer left-handed in this game (the creators realized people seemed to like having the Wii remote in their right hand while Link swings his sword with his right hand... the Gamecube version is the mirror of the Wii version, so Link is left-handed in that one). I sorta wish there had been a left-handed option so you could still play with Link left-handed. Ah, well. Also sad that the game is sort of scary/intense sometimes but there are NO wallmasters or booby-trapped chests, to my knowledge, and the ReDeads aren't as eerie as in OoT. I guess this means...I don't think any Zelda game will ever be exactly the way I want it, hehe.
Anyway, to summarize: Zelda is awesome. Zelda is always worth it. Twilight Princess is awesome. I beat it in around 50 hours including several side missions and mini-games and hours of pointless running around. The bad guys are tough; the last battle is relatively easy, although it's really, really long and epic (and awesome). The ending is satisfying, appropriate, and rather touching. As for the graphics, the Wii is clearly capable of more, but I heard that Twilight Princess doesn't look as great as it could because it was originally designed for the GameCube. In any case, with a game as fun as this, you should not be a stickler for the graphics. The game looks great regardless, and it's fun regardless.
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